This article investigates the impact of various educational conditions, including educational tracking, aspirations and aspects of citizenship education, on the development of political trust among English youth, and assesses whether these effects last into early adulthood. Data from the Citizenship Education Longitudinal Study show a tendency of…

This article examines the representation of Islam in four of the most popular and current Religious Education textbooks in England. The aim is to identify the extent to which the curriculum content is aligned with the aims of Religious Education in England. The textbooks content is reviewed using three frameworks available in literature, two of…

This report is focused on the uptake of General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) subjects in England in 2023. Uptake in a GCSE subject is defined as the number or percentage of students at the end of Key Stage 4 (KS4) taking the subject. This report was produced using publicly available data from the Department for Education's (DfE). The…

This article explores how lens-based practices can articulate and respond to art education phenomena. The affective turn in education and appearances of education in artists' film and moving-image are explored to help identify different appearances and experiences of art education pedagogy. Interspersed by clip descriptions from students and my…

In this paper we explore how Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCOs) conceptualise vulnerability and risk, and how these conceptualisations inform their responses to students at risk of exclusion from school. The literature typically makes a distinction between within-child and systemic or structural factors. We draw on interview data from…

The ability to draw visual representations such as diagrams and graphs is considered fundamental to science learning. Science exams therefore often include questions which require students to draw a visual representation, or to augment a partially provided one. The design features of such questions (e.g., layout of diagrams, amount of answer…

Preparing young people to meet emerging contemporary challenges has become a global imperative. Over two decades, there has been a call for students' active participation in the life of school and society, and an important feature of this call is student-led research (SLR). However, this pedagogical and empowering call with many potential benefits…

Teachers, examiners and assessment experts know from experience that some candidates annotate exam questions. "Annotation" includes anything the candidate writes or draws outside of the designated response space, such as underlining, jotting, circling, sketching and calculating. Annotations are of interest because they may evidence…

This paper reflects on two research projects undertaken a decade apart. The first, "Celebrating creativity collaboratively (CCC)," undertaken in 2009-10 (see Fitzgerald and Smith 2012), explored how a collaborative approach could inspire student teachers of English to become competent, confident teachers of creative writing. The second,…

Higher education is increasingly positioned as a private good for prospective students in England, through which they can hope to gain an economic return on their 'investment'. This paper offers new ways of thinking about the purpose of university study and the benchmarks of graduate success. Using Margaret Archer's understanding of the concept of…

This report is focused on the uptake of GCSE subjects in England in 2022. Uptake in a GCSE subject is defined as the number or percentage of students at the end of Key Stage 4 (KS4) taking the subject. This report was produced using publicly available data from the Department for Education's (DfE) "Find and compare schools in England"…

The elongation in the amount of time that adolescents remain in education in England has coincided with mounting concerns about increasing adolescent mental health problems. In light of research suggesting that A-level students in post-16 education may face a particularly high degree of academic pressure, this study aimed to deepen our…

Background: Socio-economic status (SES) is a powerful predictor of attainment. Research has identified multiple mechanisms that underpin the effect of SES on attainment. For example, self-regulation (processes through which individuals direct and control their attention, emotion and behaviour) has been identified as one mechanism mediating the SES…

Children in care from backgrounds of maltreatment often struggle to perform to their full potential in school. Although the English government has put education at the top of its agenda for children in care, there remains a high risk of children in care being excluded from school, undermining their chances of closing the attainment gap. This study…

The shortcomings of the current English secondary school history curriculum have been widely discussed since its inception in 2013. Less widely explored, however, are the narratives underpinning a key classroom resource: textbooks. In this paper, I review nine history textbooks currently in use in schools across the country, drawing on…